In the fast-paced world of Information Technology (IT), customers have come to expect timely updates of products (e.g., software products and services). Where annual updates were once considered satisfactory, quarterly and even monthly updates can provide a competitive advantage. Increasingly, product development is seen as a continuous workflow and not just as a series of discrete stages.
Workflow automation software, such as Code Stream, available from VMware Inc., can help shorten product development lifecycles by automating the different tasks needed to provision, deploy, test, monitor, and decommission the software targeted for a specific release. In addition, some workflow automation software can help ensure standardized configurations by coordinating the artifacts and process across each product development stage.